Things you NEED to know for this fic:
-This is before the Titans were formed, Robin is still with Batman
-Raven lives with her mother's father, who is not abusive/psychotic/fundamentalist/you get the idea
-Raven goes to regular high school
-She is supposed to use her pseudonym, Annie (from Angela), but mostly doesn't
-Her grandfather thinks she should use her powers or become a superhero, or whatever
-Theo and Raven are NOT GAY, they're just good friends (the 'la bise' thing is because Theo is half French)
-The school isn't like the normal, boring, blackboard chalk-dust-clogging-your-throat school; think Batman Beyond. His school rocks, and it's not fair. (man, that was irrelevant... I should get pills for that.)
-'Boumme' means 'doll' in French; it's a nickname, you'll see a lot of those
Okay, we're set -
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"I just want to be alone."
Maybe there's something other than Raven's powers that keeps her emotions at bay. Maybe it's just easier to live without them. Maybe it's her way to forget. The loss of a friend can cause a lifetime of pain, but how are they lost?
Chapter 1:
It wasn't like her to take so long in the morning. Her grandfather was calling her. Theo would be waiting. But something kept her rooted to the ground in front of her bureau, something more than just her reflection in the wall-mirror behind it. Her short hair in disarray from sleeping, violet-blue eyes unwillingly open, she leaned forward toward the mirror, studying her own eyes. Her mother's eyes.
"Raven, it's five til eight," her grandfather called again, slightly more impatient than the last time.
She looked at the reflection of the clock on her bedside table. The numbers were backwards, but she could still read them. She ran her brush through her hair and pulled on denim shorts and a white turtle-neck. Skipping breakfast, Raven stepped into her short, lace-up black boots that were tossed carelessly by the front door.
"I'm leaving," she called, not waiting for an answer and exiting their apartment. She heard her grandfather calling after her not to use her real name, anyway. Theo was waiting for her outside the building.
"Hey," Raven said, a little out of breath from going down all the stairs.
"Hello yourself," Theo replied, a smile gracing her lips. She hugged Raven and kissed her once on each cheek. "Long time no see, Rae; was the summer at all boring without me?" she joked.
"As could be expected, yes, but I can only hope the school year won't be nearly as dull," Raven said, smirking.
"Is it ever?" Theo tossed her light brown hair over her shoulder as she turned toward the street. She made her way over to a white and purple moped.
"I see you painted the Ped again," Raven commented, pulling a purple helmet on.
"Couldn't resist." Theo grinned from behind her white helmet. "Come on, Boumme," she said as Raven got on the moped behind her, leaning back against the seat.
"So, what name are you using this year?" Raven asked as Theo revved the engine.
"Tabitha, you?" She pulled away from the curb and started uptown.
"Annie."
"You're really attached to that name, aren't you?"
"I like it."
"Beats Theodora."
Raven smirked. "Going just a bit over the speed limit, aren't we?" she commented as they sped past some cars.
"Don't complain; I'm not the one who got up five minutes before we're supposed to arrive."
"Who's complaining?"
"I dunno. Fashionably late for the first day of high school, who would be?"
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"You know what?"
"What?"
"Geography sucks."
"Ah. What did you do this time, Tabitha?" Raven stressed the alias mockingly.
Theo slammed her locker door shut. "I was sarcastic and used 'rude gestures.' That's a load of bullcrap right there."
"Of course."
A blonde boy with green eyes walked past them in the hall.
"Oh God," Theo muttered.
"What?"
She waited until the boy had turned the corner. "That guy has been staring at me all day long," she said exasperatedly.
Raven scoffed. "Lucky you."
"I'm serious."
"No you're not."
"Well, okay, no. But anyway, it's weird." The two started for the cafeteria, getting directions from one of the many other teens in the hall.
"Hang on," Theo said, grabbing Raven's arm. They stopped in front of a television screen tuned to NEWSchannel64. A broadcast about some of the local superheroes was being aired.
"The city's and surrounding area's lack of protection has been traced to the fact that of all the supernaturally-gifted persons within the listed localities, only seventeen percent of them use their gifts for good, and only twenty-two percent use them at all. The city requests that any personnel outfitted with the aforementioned gifts come to City Hall on Wednesday, September 14 to discuss th-"
"Oh...my...God..." Raven muttered. "They're recruiting! I don't believe it; my grandfather's gonna have a cow!" she whined. "This sucks!"
"Tell me about it." She whirled around to see the blond boy standing with a group of his friends behind them. More then half their grade seemed to be crowded into that one spot in the hall, all of them staring at the screen. More than a few of them with awkward expressions on their faces.
"Come on," Theo said, pulling Raven into the cafeteria.
"Unbelievable," Raven said under her breath, plopping down at the nearest table and covering her eyes with her hand. Theo got their food andsat down across from her.
"Relax, it's not that bad. I mean, we could actually do something with our powers now, and-"
"Wait a minute," Raven looked up, holding out her hand to silence her friend; "you're actually planning on going?"
"Well, yeah. The city council's calling a meeting, so-"
"You're insane! Do you realize what you could get yourself into!"
"Look, Ra – Annie," she corrected herself, "it's not like anyone's gonna force us to do anything. They'll just... give us the stats. You know how all this works, Raven. You were Catwoman's biggest fan when you were younger."
"No I wasn't."
"Well, you could've been, everyone else was."
"Conformity sucks."
"Just eat," Theo said, shoving a plate toward her and starting to pick at her own food.
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"Yeah, Raven!" Theo called, laughing. Raven moved the crimson flames through the air in front of their awed peers. She and Theo had sort of a routine: Theo would conjure an element or two (she has control over the elements fire and ice), and Raven would contribute to the show with her telekinesis. Though her grandfather preferred it be kept a secret, Raven flaunted her power (or at least the power she was aware she had, at the time). The two teens made a game of their abilities, not caring what it would bring up in the future. If they had to deal with being 'abnormal', they were going to have fun with it.
"Sweet!" the blond kid, Garfield, said to a tall, African American boy a grade older than Raven and Theo. Garfield was only in eighth grade (the building has 8th-12th grades), but he was pretty cool. And he seemed to like Raven and Theo's little light show pretty well, too. Theo shot a line of ice over Raven's head, forming a shining, frosty arch over her. Raven made the fire explode like a small firework, accepting the applause for a time before stepping to the side to let Theo under the arch. Theo bent over and started drawing circles on the ground with her finger, ice forming with her touch. She circled upward until she had a small statue shaped like a swan; after letting the crowd gaze in wonder at it for a while, she put it behind her with the other ice figures.
"Ready to call it a day?" Raven asked.
Theo nodded. They held their arms straight out in front of them, their hands clenched into fists, Raven's glowing with black energy. Then Theo dropped two chains made of ice, one from each fist. At the end of each thin chain was a small, heart-shaped ice-locket. Raven enveloped them in aura, so they glowed a mix of black, purple, and an icy blue-white. Theo put one around Raven's neck and the other around her own. Holding her hands palm-up above her head, she shot two orbs of ice from them; Raven, also with her hands above her, sent her energy to the center of each orb, shattering them into tiny pieces and letting them rain down upon their heads and their mesmerized audience. Smiling, the two bowed deeply, once to each other, then to their audience.
"Man, we have to go into street performing," Theo kidded as the applause started to fade and the crowd in the school hallway thinned.
"Then we could quit waitressing," Raven agreed, joking. She picked up the small swan statue and enclosed it in energy (so it wouldn't ever melt), along with the other figurines. She put them in a cardboard box lined with bubble-wrap (A/N: BUBBLE WRAP! WOO HOO!) while Theo began to melt the ice arch.
"Hey, Raven!" It was Garfield and his friend. "Er, I mean Annie..."
Raven rolled her eyes laughingly. "It's Raven. Annie's only for when my granddad's around."
Garfield snickered. "Raven, nice performance." He turned to Theo. "Awesome job, you guys; you know, you could make a lot of money off that gig."
"We have," Theo joked.
Garfield jerked his thumb at his friend. "This is Victor." He faced his friend again. "Raven and-"
"Theodora. The Great Theodora," Theo teased, reaching her hand out to him. "Charmed to meet you," she said exquisitely, ignoring Raven's comment of 'Yeah, the Great Exaggerating Theodora...'
Then the television screen behind them flashed on again, still broadcasting about the meeting and showing some interviews they had had earlier that day with known superheroes.
"Beast Boy, will you be attending tomorrow's meeting?" a blond woman asked a short, green kid in a purple and black uniform.
"Uh, I guess..."
The newscaster moved down the assembly line. "Kid Flash, will you be atten-"
"God, what are they trying to do? Convince people to come because a bunch of famous, super-powered losers are going to be there?"
"Kind of a weak approach," Theo agreed with Raven.
"Unbelievable..."
"Hey, uh, we gotta go. See you tomorrow," Victor said, heading for an exit. Garfield waved and followed him.
"Buh-bye," Theo called and watched them walk away. She turned back to Raven, who was muttering to herself angrily as she finished with the statues.
"Stupid, inducing, deceitful, swindling,-"
"We're going tomorrow."
"What!"